Michael Young Considering Retirement

Michael Young is "strongly considering" retiring after 14 Major League seasons, FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal reports (Twitterlinks). Young wants to spend more time with his wife and three sons, and is considering walking away from the game despite continued interest in his services. Rosenthal reports that four teams are interested in Young and the veteran infielder had received "decent offers."

Young, who turned 37 in October, hit .279/.335/.395 in 565 PA with the Phillies and Dodgers last season. He began the season as Philadelphia's everyday third baseman but was reduced to a part-time role after he was traded to the Dodgers at the end of August. The Dodgers considered bringing Young back as their third baseman for 2014 but the club instead re-signedJuan Uribe to fill that position.

Besides the Dodgers, Rosenthal reported in December that the Brewers, Rockies and Nationals were all interested in Young this offseason, though the Nats' interest had dried up. Milwaukee, of note, was looking at Young as a first baseman rather than at the hot corner. The Yankees were also connected to Young as a possible option in the wake of Alex Rodriguez's suspension.

The issue for Young could be playing time, as Troy Renck of the Denver Post noted that Young's desire for a starting job could have impeded a deal with the Rockies, who wanted him for a bench role. Of his known suitors, it would seem the Yankees and Brewers could've offered the most potential playing time given how shallow those teams are at third and first, respectively, but Young still would've likely ended up in a platoon.

I agree that stats like WAR show he’s declined over the past two years, but .335 is a damn solid OBP, and he virtually hits lefties and righties the same. Still good enough to be a starter IMO, even if it may be confined to DH.

I’m not saying he couldn’t be a starter, but the guy is 38 years old. The only place for him to go from here is down. If I were him, I’d leave baseball on a good note before he starts putting up dismal numbers.

I’m with you, John. Good, solid career, and if you can walk away from it on your own terms with some pretty darned good years in recent memory, it may well be the time to do so. I wonder how much HOF consideration he’ll get?

There is little doubt (in mind anyway) that Biggio will get in. In fact I think he was only 2 votes short this year.

Young has had a very good career but I think you may be right about him not getting in. Although he did win a batting title and had 6 seasons (5 in a row, and twice leading the league) with 200+ hits. He also has a higher career BA and Slug% than Biggio.

I’d like to see them both make it but Young would probably have to play a few more years and get closer to 3K hits to solidify his stance…I’m not sure he can do that.

I don’t think anyone can disagree with the fact that he is on the decline. Sometimes it is better to walk away while you still have good vibes out there vs dragging it out so long that people forget you were once a great player. I know when he was still in Texas, it was said that he had his eye on 3K hits. He’s only 625 hits away, but maybe he sees the writing on the wall and realizes that he may not get there no matter how much he wants it.

Young might have been stuck in Mark reynolds territory, where nobody was offering him a legit MLB deal for decent money, that is more than 1-2m for 2014 and a major cut in pay over someone that has made almost 100m in his career and coming of just making 16m the previous season. a humbling thing.

One can’t fault him for not taking a MiLB deal, same with Reynolds and I wouldn’t doubt Reynolds retiring later on either.

Maybe it’s just me, but $1-2M seems like real money. Most aging players are perfectly happy to play part time and take that “pay cut” for how ever long it lasts without feeling too overly humbled by the experience. It might be a negotiation tactic, or it might be that he’s feeling too beat up.

I get you Blue Sky. For us and most ‘real folks” it’s a lot, or fortune, but guys who were used to making 10-20m per year, it would seem to trigger 2nd thoughts. Some have retired rather than hang around and yes.. Some have tried to hang on. Ramierez is one, there are others of course.

The “pride” people are ones like Derrek Lee, Young, Carlos Lee. They do exist.

I’m not sure pride is the main factor. Pro athletes are highly competitive people. They are tuned that way. A lot of how they decide to handle their mid-to-late 30s has to do with physical condition, injuries, and productivity in their last contract year.

Manny is an outlier in a field of outliers, so I would not use him as an example of anything except oddity. More typical are the many former full-timers who take those year-to-year deals to play in a bench or utility role towards the ends of their careers. Lots of them do just that — it’s no shame to take less to play the game they love. And it is still a lot of money.

He might have nominally started in a platoon at 1B in Milwaukee, but odds are he’d soon be getting steady work since his platoon partner Juan Francisco, is on a very short leash after finishing last year in a horrific slump. There was also a good chance he’d see significant time at 3B filling in for the bad kneed Aramis Ramirez. I’m sure Brewers wanted to pay him as a part timer and were talking platoon, but that is more bargaining tool than reality. He’d also likely to be in demand at trade deadline time again if the Brewers weren’t in contention.

The guy currently penciled in to start at 1B for the Brewers, Juan Francisco, had a worse WAR than Young last year and Young was almost a full 2 wins better than the guy he would essentially be replacing on the Brewer roster, Yuni Bentancourt. If Young’s the worst hitter in your lineup, you are not in bad shape.

Young is a very versatile player. He can play 1B, DH, 3B, SS, and 2B…as well as provide a quality bat off the bench as a pinch hitter. With all the injuries (Jeter and Tex) as well as Arod getting suspended, It might be a good idea to get Young to fill a bunch of needs on the cheap. Plus Young is a lot like Jeter in terms of attitude. With all the Arod bs going on, it couldn’t hurt to have a reliable professional on your team. Sure he’ old and isn’t the player he once was, but you could do worse.

You may want to check his defensive numbers the past couple of years. No one should be signing him to play in the field. He has a good bat and that is about all he is at this point, therefore he is a DH.

He has had negative value defensively since 2008. -8.9 dWAR in that span so hes hurting the team significantly if hes playing defense. There is really no argument. Versatility would entail playing serviceably at that position which Young can no longer do, therefore hes pretty much a 1B/DH at best. As a Red Sox fan Id love to face the Yankees with Young at 3B and Jeter at SS.

I get it. You want to believe you can come back and perform at a satisfying level, but you also don’t want to deal with the travel and physical ailments when your best years are definitely behind you an you’ve got regular family time to look forward to…Sounds like Young will try to become a coach/manager pretty soon.

Hate to see him retire, he was always such a class act. He will always be my favorite Texas Ranger player since 2000, and a close runner-up to Nolan for all time. I’d love to see Texas bring him back if he will Platoon with Mooreland